Beauty & lifestyle

one direction

It’s December! Tis the season for family,shopping, gifts and food! I was sent these 3 holiday gift sets by Markwins which I think are the perfect stocking stuffers for the friend or family member who loves all things One Direction.

Limited edition makeup kits by One Direction

The 3 kits that were sent to me were the Electroglam mascara kit, the Liquilights Glow gloss kit and the Rock me Nail kit. Lets take a look at them one at a time now shall we? 🙂

The Electroglam mascara kit

The kit comes with 3 tubes of colored mascara which can be either used on the lashes or on small sections of hair. I was far more interested to see how they looked when applied to my hair than lashes so I do not have any pics of them on my lashes. The 3 shades that come in this kit are as follows:

I liked how the blue shade looked on my hair! The wand is a typical mascara wand and after stroking this onto your hair try to gently separate your hair strands with your fingers. This will help distribute the color more evenly than by simply applying with the wand.

Electroglam Mascara

This of course in no way compares to actually dying your hair blue but as far as temporary hair color goes , this looks decent. These come off really easy with a single shampoo wash so it is a nice way to add some color accents to your hair for an evening out.

I like the formula of these glosses. They are non drying, non sticky and have no offense smells. The only thing I don’t like about them is the glitter! That is mostly since I am personally not a fan of glitter in lipglosses. The glitter also makes the gloss feel a tad bit gritty on the lips.

Liquilights Glow gloss

These glosses are supposed to change color under UV black light. Unfortunately, I do not have access to black light and so couldn’t test that out. Do let me know if anyone of you guys tested these out under black light 🙂

Rock Me Nail kit

This kit comprises of 3 nail varnishes and 3 pots of loose glitter. They suggest you sprinkle the glitter over wet polish. I tried this out and suggest that you apply an additional top coat post the glitter sprinkling step unless you like textured nails which get caught on every possible fabric!

Rock me nail kit

The shade names of the nail varnishes and glitter top coats are as follows:

Like the lip glosses these too supposedly transform under black light. I found that the blue and pink nail varnishes needed 3 coats to look opaque on my nails. The silver glittery nail varnish however was able to deposit sufficient amounts of glitter in 1 coat. The glitter toppings are messy! So make sure your layout before you begin your manicure allows you to clean up glitter. Although the glitter toppings are messy and feel gritty on the nails they do look nice once applied.

Overall, these are great little gifts for One direction fans. In case you do feel like grabbing these they are available at the following stores:

A couple of days ago, I posted (HERE) about how One Diection is coming out with limited edition makeup in the USA . Well, today I am going to show you what sort of goodies are there in one of the limited edition tins (warning: this is a long post!)! I was sent the Take me Home collection by Markwins International.

‘Take me Home’ from the looks collection

I really like the fact that the contents are housed in a tin. I am a sucker for tins :). However, I should warn you that the pic of the boys is only there on the outer sleeve. Once you remove it, the tin has a brick print on it. I am personally okay with that but I can see some fans of One direction being disappointed about it.

inside the tin

As you can see, the tin contains quite a few items! On one side, they give you an idea about the kind of looks you can create with the products in the tin. Out of the 3 tins available, this is the one leaning more towards neutral in color choices. Lets take a look at the contents more closely!

Lipstick in the shade Last First Kiss

As you can see from the picture below, the lipstick is a very pretty rosy pink. It is very natural looking and for me this is a my lips but better kind of shade.

The lipstick applied quite sheer and has a balm or lip butter kind of texture. I do find it to be very build able and it feels good on the lips. I find that it has reasonable lasting power and does not dry out my lips which is a huge plus!

Lipstick in Last First Kiss

The product came damaged with the lipstick stuck to the top cap. Other than that no negatives here! I like this lipstick!

Lipgloss in the shade Kiss you

This lipgloss looks really bright orange in the tube 🙂 but surprisingly it looks quite pretty on the lips. It does not apply bright orange, it looks almost peachy orange on my lips.

There is a ton of glitter in this lipgloss which I am not a fan of unfortunately :(. The gloss is non tacky, but slightly gritty due to the big glitter chunks.

Lipgloss in the shade Kiss You

This lip gloss is supposed to glow in UV light. I find that quite fascinating and can’t wait to see if it works!

The applicator is a sponge tip one which is more paddle like than doe foot.

Overall, I am not a fan of this gloss because of the glitter but the formula is great!

Nail Polish in the shade Live while your young

This is more of a glitter top coat. I like the look of this nail polish with multi color gold glitter bits in it. I have not yet tried this on my nails since I got the makeup tin just after I got my nails done! So, I’ll try feature this soon on a foto friday post 🙂

Nail polish: Live While We’re Young

Volumizing Mascara in black shade called Little Black Dress

The mascara is supposed to be volumizing but I personally did not find it adding any additional volume to my lashes. However, it did lengthen my lashes and also hold up the curls.

I always look for lengthening more than volume when picking up a mascara so this works for me. However, it is not the greatest mascara I’ve used. It does clump my lashes a teeny tiny bit.

Little Black Dress Mascara

Body/Eye Crayon called ‘I wish’

This is a chubby pencil in a nice chocolate brown shade. I t can be used both on the eyes as well as the body.

The crayon glides very effortlessly and has a smooth texture and so I find it perfect for use near the eyes.

I have to say that I am quite impressed with the soft texture of these shadows. They are not chalky and blend well too.

The pigmentation is also impressive. The gold glitter cream shadow is a bit chunky but has a smooth consistency as well.

Overall, I was not expecting the eyeshadows to have such good texture and quality and so..I am pleasantly surprised 🙂

Body Art Stencils

Lastly the kit comes with some stencils which can used for drawing on your arm or anywhere using the eye/body crayon.

Stencils in the kit

If you haven’t fallen asleep reading this long post yet 😉 , here is an eye look done using the contents in this kit! As you can see, the mascara has done a good job with lengthening my lashes. However they do look a bit clumpy too. For this look I first put the peachy shimmer shade called ‘Change my Mind’ all over the lid. I then went ahead and put the taupe shade called ‘C’mon C’mon in my crease followed by the brown shade called ‘Little Things’ in the outer V. I used the matte cream shade called ‘Back for you’ on my brow bone.

I used the body crayon to line the lashline and I topped it up with the cream shadow in gold glitter using an angled liner brush. I think I used 4 coats of the mascara to get this effect.

Eye look with the kit contents

So now the big question…how much is this kit and is it worth it? I am not completely sure about the price..I think the 3 kits are going to retail at 29$. They are going to released at Macy’s first on the 11th of August. To get more details about the release check out the Facebook page HERE.

I am sure a die hard fan of One direction will enjoy this kit. The eyeshadow shades in this kit are very basic and most of us might have similar shades in our collection already. The lipstick shade is nice but again very dupable. If you don’t mind the glitter, the lipgloss is nice (I have to test out if it really glows in UV light!). Everything else in the kit is also nice but again nothing fantastic that makes me want to run out and buy it. I think you can skip this kit unless your looking for a gift for a girl just starting out with makeup or your a die hard fan of One direction!

Until next time..ciao!!

*I was sent this item for review but all the opinions expressed here are my own.

So, how many of you guys know the British boy band One Direction? I am from the Boyzone and Backstreet boys era 😛 (looks like you can guess how old I am now huh? ). Anyway, lets get to the point! If you are a die hard fan of One Direction, I’ve got good news for you! They are releasing, at least in the US initially, a limited edition makeup collection called the Looks Collection. The Looks collection comprises of 3 sets inspired by their albums: ‘Up all Night’ , ‘Take me home’ and ‘Midnight memories’ , all housed in collect able tins 🙂

This collection is a result of a collaboration between One Direction and Markwins International of wet n wild and Physicians Formula fame (So the quality of these sets should be good!). Each set consists of the following:

Liquid lights glow lipgloss

Eyeshadow Palette ( 4 shadows)

Glitter cream shadow base

Liner/Shadow Chubby pencil which can be used for body tattoos as well(stencils included) !

The International release dates have not been announced yet so keep an eye on theirfacebook page!

Now the exciting part! If you want to get your hands on one of these kits before they are released to the public enter the giveaway HERE !

Details about the Giveaway: To enter the giveaway you will be asked to enter your email, like the FB page, & post to Twitter. Additional entries can be earned by referring friends, pinning on pinterest, or liking the Twitter page. The more entries the higher the chance of winning. Up to 50 limited edition makeup sets will be given away. Winners will be picked at random and announced by August 5th.